Towns

harbor masters

A U.S. Coast Guard investigation into the sinking of a the fishing boat Robert C. Monday afternoon off Dogfish Bar at the western end of the Vineyard, remains open and active, according to a Coast Guard spokesman The owner of the sunken vessel reportedly has decided not to salvage the 33-foot wooden boat, which went down in 40 to 50 feet of water after colliding with another fishing boat.

Town residents showed an outpouring of support for longtime harbor master Dennis Jason, who was reappointed on Tuesday. Mr. Jason sat calmly in the front row of the meeting room at town hall as selectmen aired their concerns.

On a hazy, warm Monday morning in June, the Edgartown harbor master pulls into his parking spot adjacent to his office on Morse street in Edgartown. Charlie Blair has barely parked his battered blue Suburban before he jumps out and asks: “What kind of shape are we in?”

Edgartown Harbor Master Charlie Blair has just brought the Pointer skiff back to the dock and, still wrapped in his life jacket, he enters his cramped office. With his big smile and bigger presence, he seems to overflow the filled-to-the-brim room.

Plans for a town-run fuel facility at the Oak Bluffs harbor met with some resistance at a Martha’s Vineyard Commission hearing last week, with some abutters to the potential facility questioning why the town needed to be involved, and voicing concerns that the fuel dock will lower property values and cause safety concerns.

Oak Bluffs has plans for a fuel facility at the harbor master’s shack in the Oak Bluffs harbor, with the 10,000 gallon gas tank stored under the parking lot. Boats would be able to fuel up at a floating dock between May and October.

Recreational boat traffic in Vineyard harbors was off during the first weeks of summer, but harbor masters report that all changed last Friday, when all four harbors were suddenly full for Independence Day weekend.

“I don’t know if it is the weather, the price of gasoline and the economy,” said Dennis Jason, Chilmark harbor master. “It could be all three.”